from 2004 till 2015 became absolute winners six times. In 2013, after their fifth win, Russia's Ministry of Defense signed a contract with ITMO University to develop software for unmanned airplanes and robotics, to name a few. The same year Minister Sergey Shoygu offered talented students jobs in scientific military units as an alternative to mandatory military service. ITMO University maintains ties with IT companies. In 2011, Dmitry Grishin, the general director of Mail.Ru, became the head of the department of internet technologies founded by the company. Later it was reorganized. In 2012, Russian programmers working for Facebook held a series of lectures at the leading technical universities in Russia, including ITMO. In 2015, Nobel Prize winner Zhores Alferov opened the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies in St. Petersburg and held an open lecture at the university. In November 2014, the association of software manufacturers Russoft published a ranking of Russian universities by the level of success in training of the IT specialists. ITMO University placed first. Around the same time the university held a conference together with the association about the advantages of successful performance at international programming competitions. In 2015, the Ministry of Education offered several universities, including ITMO to participate in the “National Platform for Open Education” Association and develop a pilot for online education with an opportunity to graduate at the completion of the courses. Currently this project still requires changes when it comes to licenses and university accreditations. Every participating university has to present no fewer than four online courses by September 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the team of ITMO University with its sixth victory in ACM ICPC programming championship at the plenary session during the second day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in May 2015. Rankings In 2022, the university was ranked #365 in the world by QS World University Rankings, and #601 by World University Rankings by Times Higher Education. In 2021, it was ranked #718 in the world by Best Global Universities Rankings by U.S. News & World Report, and #901 by Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. ITMO University is one of the 21 Russian institutions of higher education that were selected for participation in the Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100, launched in 2013 by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The aim of the project is to have at